Padres Blanks and LeBlanc named Player, Pitcher of the Week

The Pacific Coast League office announced last week that Kyle
Blanks and Wade LeBlanc of the Tucson Padres have been named Player
and Pitcher of the Week for the week of June 27-July 3.

Over six games, Blanks batted .520 (13-for-25) with a .586 on-base
percentage and 1.240 slugging percentage. San Diego’s 42nd-round
draft pick from the 2004 June Draft led the league in extra-base
hits (8), total bases (31), runs batted in (15), slugging
percentage and OPS (1.826). Blanks also added five home runs during
the week, placing him in a tie for the most in the PCL.

Blanks is the current owner of a 20-game hitting streak, which is
tied for the second-longest in the PCL this season. Over the
20-game span, the right-handed slugger is batting .463 (37-for-80)
with 11 doubles, two triples, nine home runs and 27 RBI. Blanks has
played in 23 games with Tucson this season after opening the year
with Double-A San Antonio.

In his one start last week, LeBlanc surrendered two hits and no
runs over eight innings at Sacramento on July 1. The left-hander
walked the third batter of the game before settling in and retiring
11 straight, a stretch halted by a one-out single from Andy LaRoche
in the fifth. LeBlanc finished the outing with six strikeouts
against the one walk.

LeBlanc has won his last two starts with Tucson since rejoining the
team after a two-start stint with the parent club, the San Diego
Padres. San Diego’s second round selection from the 2006 June Draft
has a 7-1 record with 75 strikeouts and 22 walks in 84.2 innings
pitched this season with Tucson. The PCL Pitcher of the Week award
is LeBlanc’s fourth of his career and first since 2009.

Blanks and LeBlanc is the first pair of teammates to earn the PCL
weekly awards in the same week since Seth Etherton and John Lindsey
of the Albuquerque Isotopes won the awards for the period ending
May 30 in 2010.